Women who want to maximize the career and educational opportunities available to them have a whole new set of obstacles and challenges to face. They also have a new set of tools and advantages at their disposal. Understanding what your opportunities as a woman are is contingent upon keeping up with changing times, changing workplaces, changing expectations, and changing technology.
History shows us that women have always have a more difficult time gaining access to the educational and career opportunities they deserve. Careers have traditionally been divided along gender lines, with the lion’s share going to men; to some extent there is still a glass ceiling. But many of the obstacles facing women who want to succeed in male dominated careers have been related to the lack of opportunity for women to enjoy the same educational benefits that men do. In some ways, that is changing.
Schools that accept only men or only women are few and far between now–and there are probably not more males only schools in the Western world than those for females only. But there are still expectations, and while those expectations have evolved, it can be as difficult for a career woman to get her graduate degree now as it was for a stay at home mom to get her bachelor’s degree thirty years ago.
Or, it could have been. Thanks to the incredible pace of distance learning technology and the enthusiasm schools have shown for offering self-paced online programs, your educational opportunities no longer have to mean putting your career (or your family life) on the shelf. For today’s women to take advantage of all of the opportunities available to them, they must make use of these changing advantages.